WAREHOUSE CLASSIFICATION

WAREHOUSE CLASSIFICATION

1. Depending on the degree of atmospheric protection

   • Covered warehouses
     • As their name suggests, they are warehouses that have a building made of bricks, canvas, or metal panels. They offer complete protection to the materials stored there, and even allow the change of conditions such as temperature, humidity, etc., within the warehouse.
   • Outdoor or open-air warehouses
     • These are warehouses delimited by fences, markings and that do not have any physical buildings. Products that do not deteriorate or degrade with atmospheric effects are stored here, for example, new vehicles. In many cases, in these types of storage, protections are used to prevent deterioration, such as plastics, shrink wraps, creams or protectors, anticorrosive.

2. According to the type of material stored (the nature of the item gives us the type of warehouse)

   • Raw material warehouses
     • This type of warehouse is usually located near the production hall or the site where these materials will be used to be transformed.
   • Warehouses for intermediate products (semi-finished products)
     • These warehouses are generally located inside the manufacturing plant, since their mission is to serve as a cushion between the different phases of obtaining a product; It is assumed that these materials have minimum waiting times for their use.
   • Finished product warehouses
     • As the name implies, they are exclusive warehouses for the finished product and their function is to regulate. It is the warehouse that is normally the one with the highest economic value of all the existing ones, so the first objective is to keep the turnover rate as high as possible.
   • Spare parts
     • This warehouse is dedicated to spare parts; It is a warehouse that is aimed at storing maintenance needs.
   • Auxiliary materials
     • It is dedicated to the auxiliary materials used in production.
   • Records

3. According to your distribution logistics function

   • Plant warehouses or central warehouses
     • These are those warehouses that are located as close as possible to the manufacturing center, in order to reduce handling and transportation costs, from the production output to the storage point. Its main mission is to control the operation as the holder of the main stock, and thus, if necessary, supply the regional warehouses. These will also act as regional in the area of influence where they are located.
   • Regional warehouses:
     • These warehouses must be as close as possible to the point of greatest consumption in the region or area of their influence, taking into account that this area of influence must not be larger for the distribution of a day. Its fundamental mission is to distribute merchandise from wholesale or retail customers in a certain area. These warehouses must be prepared to receive large tonnage trucks from manufacturing plants or suppliers and also be prepared for distribution in smaller capillary delivery trucks. Importance will be given to the order picking area in this type of warehouse.
   • Platform warehouses
     • Similar philosophy to the regional warehouse but smaller in size since it uses techniques such as cross-docking, tense flow and shock stocks, reducing the overall stock. The decision to create these warehouses will depend on the layout design. The aim of platforms is to minimise stocks and increase the level of customer service.
   • Temporary warehouses
     • As the name implies, they are those that are intended to cover peaks in demand that need to be met with an overstock. They are usually temporary warehouses and it should always be taken into account that if we have them we must think carefully about the merchandise that we will deposit in them, taking care that it is of direct service to the customer or the regional warehouses, and never returned to the main warehouse.

4. According to their equipment and handling techniques

   • Block warehouses
     • These are those where the goods are stored in reference blocks, one on top of the other. Such as bricks, detergents, expanded polyethylene, etc. In this type of storage, the strength of the base and the stability of the column must be taken into account. The coefficient applied in relation to resistance is 1.5. It is recommended for a few references and a large quantity.
   • Conventional warehouses
     • Conventional warehouses are those whose last load height is between 6-8 m, and which, independently, are equipped with pallet racking and have means never more sophisticated than a reach mast forklift for the movement of goods.

5. According to its legal regime

   • Leasing
     • Leasing is a financial lease contract that includes a purchase option for the lessee on the asset received on lease, which may be exercised at the end of the contract for a price called residual value and which must be included in the financial lease contract.
   • Renting
     • This is another type of long-term rental, but it does not contemplate a priori the option to purchase at the end of the contracted period and includes maintenance services. In this case, the customer is looking for functionality rather than the investment of an asset.
   • Rented
     • It is currently the most used option. It does not require investment and costs go from fixed to variable depending on their degree of use.
   • Own
     • It is the first of the cases in Spain taking into account its history. Although in the last 10-15 years this way of thinking has changed, not so much in family businesses, due to foreign companies and the search for profitability.